Updated 8:51 p.m. | Posted 8:29 a.m.

Missing 12-year-old Brittany Smith's cousin and aunt burst into tears tonight pleading with her to come home for Christmas. Kim Stephenson, Brittany's cousin, and Carolyn Stephenson, her aunt, said at a news conference in Roanoke County that they love her and just want her to come back. "I want you to be home for Christmas so we can share our cookies and our punch and then open our presents under the tree," Carolyn Stephenson said.

Updated 6:48 p.m.

Relatives of missing 12-year-old Brittany Smith will plead for her safe return tonight in Roanoke County, a county spokeswoman said.

Members of Brittany's family related to her father, Benny Smith, a police officer in South Boston, "want to relay a message to Brittany in hopes of bringing her home safely," Teresa Hamilton Hall, a Roanoke County spokeswoman, said in a statement tonight.

A news conference has been scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

Updated 3:44 p.m.: Easley and Smith bought a tent, might be camping

On-the-run Jeffrey Easley and 12-year-old Brittany Smith bought a blue camping tent before they dropped out of sight and may be camping, the Roanoke County police chief said today.

The pair bought an Ozark Trail tent Friday night at the Walmart in Salem, using Brittany's slain mom's credit card, said Chief Ray Lavinder.

Lavinder said they could have pitched the tent "in a camping facility, or it could be anywhere." He said some of the 330 leads investigators are following suggest the pair could be in North Carolina, Alabama, West Virginia, Ohio or Kentucky.

"We have leads pointing in all those directions," Lavinder said. "We simply do not know where they are at this time. We're just pursuing all the leads."

Locally, a Virginia State Police helicopter has been searching several hundred square miles for Easley and Smith by air.

Meanwhile, the family is planning funeral services for Tina Smith and Brittany should have the chance to be a part of that, the police chief said.

"If Jeff is out there listening ... he should allow Brittany to attend the funeral."

"It's her mother," he said. "She should be allowed to say goodbye to her mom."

Updated 10:58 a.m.: Cops warn anyone aiding Easley and Brittany

Someone may be secretly aiding on-the-run Jeffrey Easley and 12-year-old Brittany Smith, the Roanoke County police chief said today.

"For someone with very little money to drop off the face of the earth, I think someone would have to be providing them money for them to remain unlocated," Chief Ray Lavinder said today. He said authorities would prosecute anyone aiding Easley, who police believe abducted Brittany.

Brittany, 12, was discovered missing on Monday when police found the body of her mother, nurse Tina Smith, in their Roanoke County home.

"We haven't had any contact with her in the last six days," Lavinder said. "I'm almost positive that someone out there knows where Brittany and Mr. Easley are."

He said it doesn't matter to police whether Brittany went on the run with Easley voluntarily.

"What we are dealing with is a 12-year-old girl," the chief said. "She can't make legal decisions. Consent is irrelevant."

More than 250 tips have flooded police in the nationwide hunt, Lavinder said today.

Tina Smith, a 41-year-old nurse at a Salem retirement community, was found dead in her home on Fort Lewis Circle on Monday. Police won't reveal the cause of death.

Brittany, a Glenvar Middle School seventh-grader, was gone, abducted by Tina Smith's boyfriend, Jeffrey Scott Easley, 31, according to a state police Amber Alert. Salem police issued an arrest warrant for Easley on Tuesday charging him with credit card fraud for a shopping trip Friday night with Brittany, using Tina Smith's credit card.

The Wal-Mart security video of the pair at 8:35 p.m. was the last confirmed sighting.

Police believe Easley abducted Brittany and may be driving Tina Smith's 2005 silver Dodge Neon.

Posted 8:29 a.m.  |  The Associated Press

A police chief says he's received no new leads in the search for a 12-year-old Roanoke County girl believed to be with her slain mother's live-in boyfriend.

Roanoke County Police Chief Ray Lavinder tolds CBS's "The Early Show" on Wednesday that police didn't receive information overnight that would be helpful in locating Brittany Mae Smith.

Authorities found the body of Brittany's 41-year-old mother, Tina Smith, at her home in Salem on Monday. An Amber Alert was then issued for Brittany and police believe she may be with 32-year-old Jeffrey Scott Easley.

Easley's mother, Sallie Martin of Franklin County, pleaded Tuesday for her son to come forward [ see video of news conference ].

WDBJ-TV reports Easley dropped out of high school in 1996 in Ayden, N.C., about 256 miles southeast of Roanoke.